Episode 4: The Power of Music

Most people underestimate how powerful music really is.

In this episode, I explore how music can become one of the simplest and most effective tools for interrupting unhelpful patterns, shifting your emotional state, and changing the way you experience your day.

Whether you're feeling anxious, overwhelmed, angry, sad, unmotivated, or stuck in your own head, the right song can often create a shift faster than most people realize.

Inside this episode, we discuss:

• Why music has such a powerful impact on mood and mindset
• How changing your state changes your thoughts
• Creating intentional playlists for different emotional states
• Using music as a tool for anxiety, stress, motivation, and focus
• Why certain songs instantly transport us back to memories and experiences
• How music can help release emotions instead of suppressing them
• The connection between music, identity, and personal growth
• Why athletes, performers, and high achievers use music to prepare mentally

I also share some of my personal favorite songs, how I use music throughout my day, and practical ways you can build playlists that help you move from unresourceful states into more empowering ones.

Sometimes the fastest way to interrupt a pattern isn't through more thinking.

Sometimes it's simply pressing play.

— Steve Bliznicenko

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Okay, so on today's episode, I want to talk about music and how music can help shift patterns. It can help interrupt them, if you will. That's what this whole podcast is all about. So, one of the things with music is music can help change our states faster than most people realize. When we listen to certain music, depending on how we're choosing that music we're gonna listen to, it can really increase our mood. Something that can make us a lot happier, something that can motivate us. And there's reasons why so many people utilize music. I know that a lot of people, I'm one of them is listening to music in the morning or when you're cooking, or it's like dancing around the house, things like that, it just increases your mood. You get you move, and anytime you can be moved by a song and it gets you to maybe dance around a little bit or sing, when you change your state, when you change your physiology, it helps change your mood. And so oftentimes when we're stuck in an unresourceful state, whether we're anxious, we're depressed, we're sad, whatever it is, something that's really not serving us, something where we're really having some mental challenges, music becomes something that can help change that. And I think it's very, very important that everybody has a playlist. A playlist maybe for certain um moods, certain things that you deal with that can really help you get out of whatever that state was. So if something you experience often is anxiety, maybe even having a list that's like your anxiety relief list of music. Sometimes we just listen to this, throw our playlists on, or we're listening to the radio, and we're kind of just allowing whatever comes on to control our mood, or for us to just listen kind of unintentional to whatever music is actually being played. This way, what I'm saying is be intentional with it. If something that you experience often is certain states where you just get really stuck and you really get just locked into it, and it it causes you mental anguish or whatever that is for you. Sometimes having some tools, this is just another tool in the toolbox, and that's what I often want to share on these podcast episodes is and you again interview some people here in the very, very near future to teach you some things and on how to interrupt the pattern, how to get yourself out of a state and to do it more and more quickly, and with enough tools that a person has in their toolbox, when they're in a situation that doesn't serve them, and they really want to get out of that mental state, that mindset, music is just a really important way to do it. So different states create different thoughts. So if you're feeling sad and you have a song that you know just makes you really happy, one of them for me, I really love Don't Stop Me Now by Queen. I don't know what it is about that song. Every time I listen to it, it doesn't matter what kind of mood I'm in, it makes me happy. Uh it just yeah, it's so good. I don't know why it's always been something for me that increases my mood. Shoot the thrill by AC DC is another one, something that really pumps me up. There, and there's many of them, those are just two off the top of my head that I'm thinking of. I love Volbeat as a band, so there's many songs by Volbeat that really pump me up or make me feel pretty good, like Lola Montez, I love that one. Sadman's Tongue is another good one, and there's a few other ones as well. So when I have when I'm in a mental state that doesn't serve me, I often like to put the music on, make sure that I'm being strategic, and I have playlists inside my Spotify that are specific for what I'm feeling. If I want to feel a little bit happier, have a workout uh set of songs in my Spotify, and it really helps shift things, and shift things so fast, like you can shift your state in like 30 seconds with just listening to the right song. Sometimes the same problem looks different depending on your state. So when you can change your state, the problem that was causing you so much mental anguish and so much uh frustration or irritation, or you're just stuck, you're lost in it, you were being consumed by that invisible rabbit that started breeding all over your mind, and maybe you've you felt like I you need to go have a drink, or maybe it's go smoke some dope or take your medication, whatever it is. Now you have something that maybe can help you without needing some of those things. Like maybe try this first. Music can shift you from a defeated to an empowerment state. Music can often shift people from anxious to calm. Music can often shift somebody from being distracted to being focused. That's something that I do when I read. I like to have not so much music on with words, but I like to put on in the background, like I look up on Spotify, like reading uh instrumentals. I love just instrumentals. So the songs with the words, some really good instrumentals, or even like nature or rain falling or the crackling of a fire. Something that really relaxes me and allows me to just be completely present within that book and just allow me to really read the words and really absorb them into what that book is trying to tell me. Oftentimes I like to fall asleep to the same type of thing. Something that really relaxes me, or I put on delta waves and things like that. So there's sound, music, things like that, or things that can just really encourage us to work out of some mental frustration, to work out of a state that doesn't serve us. Music can help regulate your nervous system. And many of these songs, and whether it's especially with waves, and you can even look up sound bowl sounds, and just there's something that's gonna really make you feel calm. For me, I love the sound of rain. I love the rain, the thunder. I don't know what it is about it. It I've just always really found that really soothing, really calm. And the crackling of a fireman, I really love that one. Music can help release emotions that you've been building up. Like sometimes if you're feeling sad as an example, sometimes listening to that song that just allows you to tear up, to let it out, to get that cry over with. Allow yourself to feel those feelings rather than bottling them in. I think one of the biggest things that people often struggle with, and often what really keeps people stuck in a place that doesn't serve them is that they're um that they're not they're not feeling their feelings, and they're not allowing those emotions to pass. They're just kind of getting stuck in it and allowing more things to come into play. And when you can allow yourself to move through it, shed that tear, maybe get motivated to go to the gym, get outside, get some fresh air, read that book, clean the house, something that just gives you an energy. Like I know sometimes when I don't have a lot of energy, music is just one of the things that just it the right song just gets me fired up, gets me moving, gets me, gets my heart pumping, gets me wanting to, you know, be active rather than just sitting on the couch and sulking or feeling bad or whatever that is, right? Everybody's got a different thing that they deal with. Everybody deals with something throughout a day, or at least throughout a week, certainly throughout a month, where they find themselves in an emotional state that doesn't serve them. It's typically gonna be one that is a pattern, something that's been experienced over and over and over, something that we still continually need to work through. Music can also bring awareness to the feelings that you're that's in below the consciousness. Sometimes we hear a song and it can even bring us back to a childhood memory. Like there's certain songs. I know that I know people that have lost their parents. My lady lost both of her parents, and there's certain songs that she associates to her parents, and it helps her really remember some fond memories. She used to always get woken up to Susie Q by her dad, and it was just something that really gives her such a fond memory. And I know so many people have certain songs that just associate them with maybe it's winning a championship in high school, maybe it's the your song with your partner, maybe something that what you experienced with your parents or a friend, like maybe it was a old song that you sang, like for me, songs that we sang when I was in high school, and something that we just belted out as kids was The Dance and Friends in Little Places by Garth Brooks, also Iris by the Goo-Goo dolls, songs that we just sang and we sang in circles, rocking back and forth as friends, and just it was just a really good time. So a lot of times those songs take me back to a really good place, and if I know songs like that can bring me back to fond memories. Sometimes when I'm if I'm upset or I'm sad or whatever's going on, something when I'm in one of those places that doesn't serve me, if I can also listen to a song that makes me think about fond memories, and then that's gonna bring a certain level of happiness and joy and help me shift out of whatever I'm experiencing. Certain songs become linked to those specific memories and experiences, and that's why they're so powerful. Music also acts as like an emotional anchor, like I was talking about. Like if you're sad, like listen to that song that gets you to cry. Get it out of you, release it. You also don't want to listen to songs that get you stuck in states that don't serve you, like you want to be intentional, like I mentioned, with song selection, excuse me, and how it can really serve you. And one of the ways is just to make sure that if you're angry, listening to songs that keep you angry are probably not the best songs to listen to. Like you want to do something, listen to some songs that are opposite of that. If you're sad, you don't want to be sad for too long. Maybe you want to get that cry out, and then start listening to some happy songs, start listening to something that serves you because obviously too much sadness can lead to depression, and you don't want to be just stuck listening to sad songs the whole time, whatever that looks like for you. Like music is just so powerful, something that has been utilized in civilization for as long as we've really been around. There's some sort of music, dancing around fires, whatever that looked like in those days, but there's always been like it's been something, you know, a way to also bring people together. That's why concerts are so loved by so many people is music. Also is a great experience, and even sometimes that alone can also add to the experience bank of when you've gone to a concert and who you went to that concert with, it's like, oh, I remember when I listened to such and such and this song came on, and it was just like a moment that I shared with my your kid or your spouse or your friends or whoever you were there with. It really adds to the memory bank of just really good feelings to elicit some more positive emotions that make you experience something that you want to experience rather than being stuck dealing with something that you don't. Or even athletes. When you're going to the gym, some people like listening to music, but it's like so many athletes and high-performing people. It's like you got those songs. Like I've never been to a sports event. Could you imagine if you were at a sports event and there was zero music at all, it was just commentary and there was no music at intermissions, or that that music that's throughout the game? What's it designed for? It's designed to keep everybody engaged and pumped up and pump up the the athletes, and athletes listen to the music in their locker room before coming out to play the sport, whatever that looks like. Boxers and UFC fighters, they come out to certain music that's their entry song, and it's just something that really lands for them, like really gets them in the right state of mind, the right mood to go to battle, to compete, to be in the best state that they can be. Going into this thing can help you deal with nerve nervousness, it can help you deal with worrying about the outcome, it can help you deal with anxiety, all those things. It's just music is so powerful. Music can also help reinforce an identity or help you create a new one. So we want to be careful, like I said, with what m we're utilizing that music for. And we don't want to keep increasing identity that doesn't serve us, but if we wanna if we're somebody that wants to be a happier person, like why not listen to some more happy music, music that maybe serves you. You gotta really be careful. We don't want to be constantly listening to music that's rageful or hey, if you like that, that's fine. But I'm just saying you gotta sometimes if you're always in a great emotional state and it serves you well and it doesn't affect your mood, it doesn't change anything, doesn't create any negative behaviors or emotions from that, then great. Listen to it if you get joy out of whatever genre you like to listen to. But I'm just saying if some of those lyrics being said in those songs or whatever is actually being told, it's like we want to be very, very careful too what that is actually doing for us, how that music is actually moving us forward and what we're actually listening to, what are the words actually saying? Right? We don't want to listen to too much hate and negativity and but then wonder why we're always negative or angry or frustrated or irritated. Oftentimes it's like, hey, listen to what you've been listening to for the last week or every day, going to work, coming back home. It's like, geez, it's gotta be careful, gotta be careful with it as well. So I'm just saying be really intentional with the music because music can be such a powerful tool. But some of the things that we want to keep adding into our toolbox is different things that can really change the pattern, interrupt it, what can move us somewhere where we want to go? Like I think often when we're experiencing certain things, we w would much rather be experiencing something different. There's always the opposite. So if I'm worrying about something, how can I stay present? What could bring me back into presence? What can I listen to that that anchors me into my current reality and not in some future reality that hasn't even existed, or if I'm sad for too long, like what can make me happy? If I'm angry again, what can make me happy, or just anything that can get me calm, get me fired up, get me motivated, get me moving, get me happy, bring some joy, gets me to dance, gets me to move, gets me to sing. Those are all the things we want to be searching for when it comes to music. Something that can really help us experience the moment better or experience the day better. And making those lists is really important as well because I think so many of us have these lists on our phone, and we have hundreds, some people maybe have thousands of songs on a Spotify, and you just pick shuffle and it kind of comes up as whatever, but really spending the time to come up with some lists that you can utilize during certain situations throughout a month or throughout a week, or if it's like maybe you don't like going into work going into work every day, and what kind of music could you listen to that at least changes your mood, makes that experience potentially better? And yeah, music is one of the simplest tools that you can use. So it's around us all the time, it's available, it's cheap. I think everybody always has Spotify these days or Apple iTunes, so utilize it for what it's worth. Take the time to make some lists and you'll be in a lot better state utilizing this tool. So much love, have a great day. Take care.